World Series live updates: Phillies build lead with Brandon Marsh, Alec Bohm homers
Brandon Marsh #BrandonMarsh
The World Series continues Tuesday as the Philadelphia Phillies meet the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park.
The best-of-seven series is all tied up at one game apiece. The Phillies took Game 1 on Friday night, and the Astros rolled to Game 2 victory Saturday. Game 3, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed amid inclement weather, a delay that probably benefits Philadelphia.
Follow along for live updates.
9:11 PM: Phillies go 1-2-3 for the first time in the third
Lance McCullers Jr. delivered his first clean inning in the bottom of the third. The right-hander struck out Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto before getting Bryce Harper to ground out to second baseman Jose Altuve, who was positioned in shallow right field.
By: Scott Allen
9:04 PM: Astros go quietly in the third against Ranger Suárez
Ranger Suárez is through three innings on 45 pitches after throwing his second perfect frame. The left-hander fell behind Martín Maldonado 3-0 before striking him out looking. He then got a glove on Jose Altuve’s liner, picked up the ball to the right of the mound and calmly threw to first. A grounder to third by Jeremy Peña ended the frame.
By: Scott Allen
8:57 PM: Lance McCullers Jr. finally gets out of the second
Lance McCullers Jr. got Kyle Schwarber to ground out to end the second inning, but not before the Phillies tacked on a pair of runs. Philadelphia is the first team in World Series history to hit three home runs in the first two innings. McCullers is already at 43 pitches.
By: Scott Allen
8:52 PM: Brandon Marsh gives Phillies a 4-0 lead with solo shot
After allowing Alec Bohm’s homer to lead off the second, Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. struck out Bryson Stott and Jean Segura. The Phillies, who have averaged seven runs per game at home this postseason, weren’t done doing damage. With two outs, Brandon Marsh hit a solo home run that just cleared the right field fence.
By: Scott Allen
8:51 PM: Analysis from Chelsea Janes, National baseball writer
Hearing this Philly crowd is confirmation of one of the driving principles of my approach to life: The angstier you are at all times, the happier you are at the best times. Words to live by. This place is so alive.
8:50 PM: Analysis from Adam Kilgore, Reporter covering national sports
The Phillies acquired Brandon Marsh from the Angels at the deadline because they were desperate to improve their outfield defense. They didn’t mind his dearth of offense — and now he crushed a home run against Lance McCullers Jr., the Phillies’ third in their first trip through the lineup. These Phillies look unbeatable at home.
8:49 PM: Analysis from Chelsea Janes, National baseball writer
The Phillies entered this game averaging seven runs per home game this postseason. Might go up. Marsh hits a solo shot. 4-0.
8:44 PM: Phillies extend lead to 3-0 on Alec Bohm’s home run
Alec Bohm laced Lance McCullers Jr.’s first pitch of the second inning — a breaking ball that hung up — over the left field wall for his first postseason home run. The Phillies have a 3-0 lead and the Citizens Bank Park crowd is loving it.
By: Scott Allen
8:43 PM: Analysis from Adam Kilgore, Reporter covering national sports
Home plate umpire Dan Iassogna gave Ranger Suárez strikes on two borderline inside fastballs to strike out Chas McCormick, a pitch that makes him deadly on right-handers if he continues to get it. Suárez’s fastball has also been zipping in at 95 miles per hour, a few ticks higher than usual.
8:42 PM: Analysis from Chelsea Janes, National baseball writer
A Bohm run. Phillies 3, Astros 0.
8:40 PM: Astros strand two runners in the second
The Astros’ first base runner came with two outs in the second inning, courtesy of an infield single by Yuli Gurriel. After rookie David Hensley singled up the middle on a 3-2 pitch to put runners on first and third, Ranger Suárez struck out Chas McCormick looking to preserve the Phillies’ 2-0 lead.
By: Scott Allen
8:32 PM: Analysis from Adam Kilgore, Reporter covering national sports
Bryce Harper has been excellent all postseason, wherever he hits, but at Citizens Bank Park he has been a demigod: 10 for 22, three doubles, four homers. He’s slugging over 1.000.
8:26 PM: Bryce Harper gives Phillies 2-0 lead with first-inning homer
Bryce Harper has given the Phillies an early 2-0 lead with his sixth home run of the postseason. With two outs in the first inning and Kyle Schwarber on first base, Harper hit the first pitch he saw from Lance McCullers Jr. into the right field seats.
McCullers has struggled with his command, but had a chance to get out of the inning unscathed. After walking Schwarber to lead off the game, he struck out Rhys Hoskins and got J.T. Realmuto to pop out to the catcher. After Harper’s blast, Nick Castellanos grounded out to end the frame.
By: Scott Allen
8:23 PM: Analysis from Barry Svrluga, Sports columnist
Bryce Harper: underpaid.
8:23 PM: Analysis from Chelsea Janes, National baseball writer
Bryce Harper. The perfect stage. The perfect swing. 2-0, Phillies.
8:14 PM: Analysis from Adam Kilgore, Reporter covering national sports
The Astros stuck with the aggressive approach they used against Zack Wheeler in Game 2, when they swatted three doubles in the first four pitches. It backfired in Game 3 against Ranger Suárez, who needed only two pitches to retire the first two Astros and then struck out Yordan Alvarez with a gorgeous curveball.
8:13 PM: Phillies flash the leather in a 1-2-3 first inning
Ranger Suárez worked an efficient 1-2-3 top of the first inning with a little help from his defense. On the first pitch of the game, Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos made a sliding catch to rob Jose Altuve of a hit. Suárez got Jeremy Peña to ground out on his next offering and then struck out Yordan Alvarez on his ninth pitch of the frame.
By: Scott Allen
8:07 PM: Analysis from Chelsea Janes, National baseball writer
Nick Castellanos just made another sliding catch to save a hit, turned around and started clapping with the fans in right field. This is something.
7:58 PM: Rhys Hoskins is ‘Philly through and through’
HOUSTON — About 2½ hours before any of them were due for their scheduled batting practice Saturday, Kyle Schwarber, Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott and other Philadelphia Phillies were out on the field taking swings off a pitching machine, their hitting coach nowhere in sight. Schwarber had lugged out a giant speaker, turned up the Blink-182 and slowly but surely transformed the whole thing into something of an impromptu home run derby.
Rhys Hoskins, polished and professional, emotive on the field but steady off it, was leaning on the cage, waiting his turn. He is the senior in a clubhouse full of rowdy underclassmen, a Phillie through the recent worst as well as this stunning best, the kind of guy no one could blame for trying a little too hard to be a little too serious at a time like this.
But as Schwarber hit a ball that fell just short of the center field wall at Minute Maid Park in a meaningless batting practice session, Hoskins was jumping up and down, hooting and laughing, fully consumed by it all.
Few Phillies know better than Hoskins how important it is to absorb this moment. No player on the Phillies’ roster has played more games for them than he has. Since the Phillies drafted him in 2014, they have had five managers, three general managers and their first president of baseball operations. They had never been in the playoffs before this year.
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By: Chelsea Janes
7:46 PM: Game 3 lineups feature an Astros rookie making his World Series debut
With left-hander Ranger Suárez on the mound for the Phillies, David Hensley, who swings from the right side, will get his first start of the World Series as the Astros’ designated hitter. The 26-year-old rookie, who hit .345 in 29 at-bats after making his major league debut in August, is 0 for 1 in the postseason.
Left-handed hitters Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh return to Philadelphia’s starting lineup against Houston righty Lance McCullers Jr.
By: Scott Allen
7:44 PM: Analysis from Adam Kilgore, Reporter covering national sports
Despite winning 19 fewer games than the Astros during the regular season, the Phillies have one clear advantage in the World Series, and it will be unveiled tonight. Their home crowds have been some of the loudest in recent memory. The Phillies have gone 5-0 this postseason at Citizens Bank Park, where the crowd’s energy feels like a 10th player.
7:41 PM: Game 2 recap: Jose Altuve, Astros thrive on impatience to seize Game 2
HOUSTON — When whatever tortured souls spend their futures memorializing baseball history look back at this era of Houston Astros dominance, they will be unable to do so without contemplating the complicated legacy of Jose Altuve. He has been the face of their success and the effigy for their perceived moral failures, all the while serving as one of the most internally respected members of a clubhouse that has seen all-time greats come and go.
His manager, Dusty Baker, has said many times that he wishes the jeers and the boos and the expletive-riddled chants that come Altuve’s way everywhere but here would stop, that people would look at him — learn from him, even. His teammates praise him, laugh at his ability to control the bat, wonder at his ability to control emotions.
But to this point in the postseason, Altuve was not exactly providing an offensive education. The Astros got themselves to a one-game deficit against the Philadelphia Phillies in this World Series without Altuve’s bat. They erased that deficit with a 5-2 win Saturday in Game 2 in large part because of it.
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By: Chelsea Janes
7:29 PM: A postponed Game 3 gives Phillies’ pitching a boost
PHILADELPHIA — If the Philadelphia Phillies were at all anxious about hosting a World Series game for the first time since 2009 on Monday night, they did not show it in the usual ways. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs arrived wearing a taco costume. Infield coach Bobby Dickerson took the field wearing a wrinkled monster mask contraption in which he was almost unrecognizable. And despite all that, they still seemed relatively emotionally stable.
But by about 5:30 p.m. on Halloween, the tarp was in place at Citizens Bank Park and word was spreading to managers, players and reporters that the forecast of rain had grown ominous enough that the game could be postponed. The news later became official: Major League Baseball postponed Game 3 of the World Series to Tuesday, pushing Game 4 to Wednesday and Game 5 to Thursday. MLB opted to maintain the travel day between cities, so Game 6, if needed, would be Saturday (instead of Friday) and Game 7 would be Sunday (instead of Saturday).
It is possible that Monday’s weather made a Game 7 more likely — or, at least, made the Phillies’ chances in this series significantly better. If the Phillies had played Monday night, they would have pitched right-hander Noah Syndergaard. Syndergaard has pitched just 5⅓ innings in this postseason and did not carry a heavy workload down the stretch. If the Phillies had relied on him Monday, they might have been grateful to get a few innings, then turned things over to the bullpen. Perhaps it would have worked.
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By: Chelsea Janes
7:07 PM: Bryce Harper in the World Series has Nationals fans feeling all sorts of ways
Like most Washington Nationals fans, Dean Schleicher was upset the day Bryce Harper agreed to a record-setting 13-year, $330 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in February 2019. Harper was Washington’s homegrown, feisty, brash superstar, a worth-the-price-of-admission phenom others loved to hate. At 26 and after seven memorable seasons in D.C., he was headed to a division rival with a fan base Nationals supporters had good reason to despise, and he seemed poised to torment his former team long after his well-coiffed hair and beard turned gray.
Harper’s viral slip-up during his first news conference with the Phillies, when he famously said he “wanted to bring a title back to D.C.,” offered a brief and humorous respite from the initial disappointment, which prompted fans to deface their No. 34 jerseys and at least one family to rename their Goldendoodle. Months later, Schleicher, who tweeted the clip of Harper’s verbal gaffe, would relish the fact that the Nationals eliminated the Phillies from playoff contention in Harper’s first season in Philadelphia.
Now, with Harper’s Phillies in the World Series, four wins from bringing a championship back to the City of Brotherly Love, Nationals fans are feeling all sorts of ways, from peeved to indifferent to even happy for the man who never won a playoff series with Washington. For some, time — and the Nationals’ 2019 title — heals all wounds.
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By: Scott Allen
7:02 PM: How World Series day games went extinct
Some baseball fans fondly remember the World Series day game, with stories of teachers wheeling television sets into classrooms and kids sneaking transistor radios into schools or rushing home to catch the final innings.
But that era, which baseball chipped away at haltingly starting with a single early-1970s experimental night game, is now hazy for generations of fans — and unimaginable for those under the age of 40, who have never seen a full World Series game contested in daylight. It has been 35 years since the last World Series day game, and don’t hold your breath for the next one.
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By: Frederic J. Frommer